The Indian growth story of rising incomes, increased wealth, more freedoms, and higher aspirations has not been the reality for many citizens of Bharat. Sharad Joshi, an economist and former Rajya Sabha Member from Maharashtra, noted this dichotomy in the way the urban residents of India and the rural residents of Bharat were treated. At its core, while the government treats its urban, nonagricultural population as rational economic actors capable of making decisions about their economic lives, it treats its agricultural population as incapable of doing so.

India has jumped from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019 on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index. Even though this index is based only on Delhi and Mumbai, the Government of India has encouraged all the states to implement reforms to improve investment confidence. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India, ranks states based on reforms implemented as mentioned in Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP). This ranking incentivises states to compete for becoming favoured destinations for industries.

As the debate around the current agri-reforms refuses to settle, it's imperative to take a deep dive into these reforms and try to understand how exactly they will benefit the farmer. Why are some farmers opposing these reforms, what are the gaps, if any; and how much further are we yet to go in terms of liberalising agriculture?

In this episode of Spontaneous Dialogue with Dr Parth J Shah, President, CCS and Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, Founder, Foundation for Democratic Reforms, where we uncover answers to these questions, and many more.

सेंटर फॉर सिविल सोसायटी द्वारा प्रस्तुत आज़ादी पोडकास्ट के इस एपिसोड में आज हम चर्चा करेंगे बहुचर्चित कृषि सुधार कानून 2020 पर। हम यह जानने की कोशिश करेंगे कि इन सुधारात्मक कानूनों के बारे में आम किसान क्या सोचता है और क्या वास्तव में किसानों का कुछ भला होगा? इस महत्वपूर्ण विषय को होस्ट कर रहे हैं आज़ादी.मी के संपादक अविनाश चंद्र और वक्ता हैं गुनवंत पाटिल। गुनवंत पाटिल किसान परिवार से ताल्लुक रखते हैं और पेशे से इंजीनियर और पैशन से फिलांथ्रोपिस्ट हैं। पाटिल किसानों के सबसे बड़े संगठन शेतकरी संगठन से जुड़े हैं और स्वतंत्र भारत पक्ष नामक राजनैतिक संगठन के जनरल सेक्रेटरी भी हैं।

"COVID-19 took the world by shock. What started as a small infection has spread across several countries, inflicting harm to millions of people and setting the global economy back by decades. As of September 2020, India adds close to 100,000 COVID-19 cases per day. Economists estimate the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to contract by at least 10.5% for 2021 (C. Kumar 2020). Q1 GDP numbers show a GDP fall of close to 24% (Jebraj 2020). Unemployment in the country in the third week of September has risen to 7.2% (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy 2020).

The government and society in India have historically viewed farming merely as a means of achieving food security for the country. Farmers are considered annadatas, instead of legitimate entrepreneurs engaged in the business of agriculture. The liberalisation of 1991 did not touch the agriculture sector.

Government and society in India have historically viewed farming merely as a means of achieving food security for the country. Farmers are considered annadatas, instead of legitimate entrepreneurs engaged in the business of agriculture. The liberalisation of 1991 did not touch the agriculture sector. Despite decades of policy interventions, a majority of Indian farmers have not seen their incomes rise, nor have they been able to increase farm productivity.

Street vendors form an integral part of the urban economy—majority of the population depends on hawkers for affordable goods and services. Vending constitutes a sizeable proportion of the informal sector and creates opportunities for entrepreneurship and self-employment. For several decades post-independence vendors faced harassment, extortion and eviction at the hands of local authorities and found no respite from courts either.

The Indian Parliament enacted the Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act in 2014, to prevent harassment of street vendors and to regulate their livelihood. Given the important role played by local authorities in regulating street vending, the Act delegates rule-making powers to the State Government. It specifies the respective authorities for making rules, schemes and bye-laws, neatly delineates the rule-making heads/matters for each of these and specifies the timeline for enacting them.

सेंटर फॉर सिविल सोसायटी द्वारा प्रस्तुत आज़ादी पॉडकास्ट के इस एपिसोड में फाउंडेशन फॉर इकोनॉमिक डेवलपमेंट के सीनियर प्रोग्राम मैनेजर देवाशीष देशपांडे के साथ ‘कृषि सब्सिडी की तार्किकता’ की पड़ताल कर रहे हैं सेंटर फॉर सिविल सोसायटी के रिसर्च मैनेजर व होस्ट सुधांशु नीमा। इस पॉडकास्ट में किसानों को सब्सिडी वस्तुओं के रूप में प्रदान करने की बजाए डायरेक्ट कैश ट्रांसफर के माध्यम से प्रदान किए जाने की संभावनाओं और इसकी जटिलताओं पर विस्तार से चर्चा की गई है।